CityLife

Human League, Halle and fireworks in the park

TATTON HEADLINERS: Human League

IT’S about this time of the year that Tatton Park likes to explore cultural diversity at both ends of the musical spectrum and open up its pyrotechnics cupboard.

Yes, the annual Tatton weekend of songs and sparklers starts on Saturday and, in readiness, CityLife is listening to a little Ludwig Van in our legwarmers while the boss turns the lights on and off.

It’s not quite the real thing, but there’s nothing wrong with a dress rehearsal.

This year’s two-day programme pans out thus. On Saturday, Manchester’s Halle Orchestra serenade what is expected to be a sell-out crowd before a responsible adult lights the rockets and a whole load of big-budget fireworks explode in the skies above.

And on Sunday, it’s less chin stroking and more nostalgia as we’re transported back to the 1980s with five of the decade’s A-list pop bands.

On the Halle’s schedule for Saturday, and under the guidance of accomplished conductor Neil Thomson, is a selection of music aimed to create a sense of magic and mystery.

Organisers promise Paul Dukas’ symphonic poem The Sorcerer’s Apprentice (made famous by Disney’s Fantasia), pioneering tone poem St. John’s Night On The Bare Mountain by Russian composer Modest Mussorgsky, and a fine finale of The Witches Sabbath from Hector Berlioz’s 1830 piece Symphonie fantastique.

After that – BANG! Ahhhhh… ZOOOOOM! Eeeeee… 

ABC

By Sunday, we swing from proms to pop as The Human League headline a five-strong bill that also features Belinda Carlisle, ABC, Go West and Heaven 17.

Riding a wave of critical praise following their Dare tour in 2007, Sheffielders The Human League have found a fresh resonance with the current generation of musicians for whom electro-pop is the new religion.

Phil Oakey and co took the sound into the mainstream in 1981 (when Jamie ‘Klaxon’ Reynolds was still bottle feeding and La Roux’s parents were still in high school… probably) and cracked America and Australia with their breakthrough single Don’t You Want Me. 

About the same time, Hollywood-born Belinda Carlisle was making recording history with her band The Go-Go’s, but it was when she broke off to go solo in the mid-1980s that she became a household name, hitting the Top 10 with singles Heaven Is A Place On Earth, Circle In The Sand and Leave A Light On.

New wavers ABC and synth-heavy trio Heaven 17 were pop darlings at the same time as the League, and both also became celebrated bands when the spotlight focused on Sheffield (although ABC frontman Martin Fry hails from Stockport), and southerners Go West built on early UK successes in the mid-'80s to make a big impression stateside with the King Of Wishful Thinking.

Which means we’re in for two nights that are world’s apart. But if the weather keeps up its autumnal feel, you’ll all be reaching for the legwarmers no matter what side of the pomp vs pop divide you’re standing on.

Halle Fireworks and Light Spectacular, Saturday, £25.50; Party! at Tatton Park with The Human League etc, Sunday, £29.50/£20.50. Both events Tatton Park, Cheshire – please note, junction 7 on the M56 is currently closed for roadworks, visitors will need to plan an alternative route.

*YOU can read an interview with Halle's CEO John Summers to the right.